The Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL) and the Association of Multiple Banks of the Dominican Republic (ABA) will launch a financial education campaign in the main Dominican consulates in the United States to guide the diaspora on the use of digital bank transfers as an agile, practical and economical alternative for sending remittances.
The initiative includes training that will begin on November 1 and will be implemented at consular offices in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, and Miami, with orientation activities that will allow citizens to learn about and use digital options to send resources to their relatives in the Dominican Republic.
The announcement was made by the president of the Board of Directors of INDOTEL, Guido Gómez Mazara, along with the executive president of the Association of Multiple Banks of the Dominican Republic (ABA), Rosanna Ruiz, at an event held at the Dominican House of Culture in New York, where he explained that this initiative seeks to optimize the digital use for sending remittances from the United States to the Dominican Republic, promoting access to safer, faster and cheaper channels.
He said that 80% of the remittances the country receives come from the U.S., constituting an essential support for thousands of families; however, a large part of these transfers are still made in physical cash, which leaves an opportunity for the use of digital channels.
“Forty percent of Dominicans who send remittances in cash have active bank accounts, but only 14% use digital means to make their transfers. This gap represents a challenge that we seek to overcome through awareness and training strategies coordinated between the public and private sectors,” said Gómez Mazara.
He added that “in coordination with the Banking Association, we have designed a comprehensive training program in our consulates in the United States, with the purpose of educating and training our compatriots to integrate and use digital transactions more frequently.”
With this strategy, INDOTEL and ABA seek to strengthen financial inclusion and modernize the channels for transferring resources to the country, generating greater security, traceability and efficiency in these operations.
